Chapter 6 - The Price of My Sister
Sophie’s bed was empty.
The IV line lay disconnected on the floor.
The window was closed.
No blood.
No sign of a struggle.
Her phone remained beneath her pillow.
On the wall television, a black screen displayed one sentence.
BRING BOX SEVENTEEN TO PIER 9.
MIDNIGHT.
ALONE.
I stopped breathing.
“No.”
Rachel ordered the hospital locked down.
Marco checked elevators.
Leo stood completely still.
That scared me more than shouting would have.
“I’m going.”
Rachel turned toward him.
“No.”
“My sister.”
I looked at Leo.
“Sophie is my sister.”
“And Samuel wants the archive.”
“I don’t care what he wants.”
“I do.”
He moved in front of me.
“Because if you walk into Pier Nine alone, Sophie won’t be the only person he kills.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“Leo.”
“I said no.”
I shoved him.
He barely moved.
“You don’t get to decide this.”
His voice softened.
“You’re right.”
That stopped me.
He took my hands.
“You decide.”
I stared at him.
“But decide knowing Samuel needs you scared enough to stop thinking.”
I pulled my hands away.
“Then tell me what to think.”
“The message says box seventeen.”
“Yes.”
“Samuel already saw box seventeen.”
I froze.
Rachel understood.
“He isn’t asking for the documents.”
“He wants something else.”
I remembered my father’s letter.
If Samuel ever finds box seventeen, he will believe he has won. Let him.
There was another box.
We returned to the chapel ruins.
The fire had blackened the walls but left the underground archive intact.
My father’s real key had been hidden inside the lining of his letter.
Box thirty-one opened.
Inside was one ledger.
One photograph.
One recording.
And a notarized statement from Julia Moretti.
The ledger listed payments Samuel, Raymond, and Dr. Reed received for illegal surveillance, bribery, and contract murders.
The photograph showed Raymond and Samuel beside Julia’s wrecked car before police arrived.
The recording contained Samuel’s voice.
“Once she goes over the bridge, we control the narrative.”
Leo nearly dropped the recorder.
Rachel whispered, “This could put them away for life.”
“That’s why Samuel wants it.”
I closed the box.
“Then we take it to Pier Nine.”
Rachel shook her head.
“We take a copy.”
“No.”
Everyone looked at me.
“Samuel knows what my father hid. If he checks and realizes it’s fake before Sophie is safe, he kills her.”
Leo said, “Leora—”
“I am not gambling with my sister.”
“And I’m not gambling with you.”
I looked at him.
For several seconds, the ruined chapel disappeared.
There was only his face.
His fear.
Not for himself.
For me.
“You don’t get to save everybody,” I whispered.
“Neither do you.”
“Watch me.”
He smiled sadly.
“That’s exactly what scares me.”
Pier Nine was an abandoned shipping warehouse beside the frozen river.
I entered carrying box thirty-one.
Leo was nowhere visible.
That was the agreement.
Samuel had demanded I come alone.
Technically, I did.
Sophie sat tied to a chair beneath an overhead light.
She looked pale.
But alive.
“Sophie.”
Her eyes filled.
“Leora.”
Samuel stepped from the shadows.
“You look like your father.”
“I’ll try not to take that as an insult.”
“He was stubborn too.”
“He was right.”
Samuel smiled.
“Right men die poor every day.”
“And cowards die eventually.”
His smile disappeared.
“Box.”
I held it.
“Sophie first.”
“Open it.”
“Her first.”
Samuel sighed.
“You’ve been around Leo too long.”
“Maybe.”
“He’ll get you killed.”
“He hasn’t yet.”
“Give me the box.”
One of his men held a gun behind Sophie.
My heart hammered.
I placed the box on the floor and pushed it forward.
Samuel opened it.
His eyes widened.
For the first time, I saw fear.
Real fear.
He lifted Julia’s statement.
“Daniel kept this.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere smarter than you looked.”
Samuel laughed.
“Your father spent six years stocking shelves because he thought this would save him.”
“He didn’t keep it for himself.”
“No?”
“He kept it for the day someone strong enough to finish this found it.”
Samuel looked at me.
“And you think that’s you?”
A voice answered from the darkness.
“No.”
Leo stepped into the warehouse.
“It’s us.”
Samuel spun.
Gunfire erupted.
Lights shut off.
Rachel’s team moved.
I ran toward Sophie.
Someone grabbed me.
I elbowed backward.
A man cursed.
Then Marco tackled him.
I reached Sophie and cut the restraints with a broken piece of plastic from the chair.
“Can you walk?”
“I think so.”
Her breathing was too fast.
“Look at me.”
“I’m scared.”
“I know.”
“My chest hurts.”
My blood went cold.
“Sophie.”
“I can’t—”
I screamed for help.
Leo heard me.
He crossed the warehouse as federal agents took Samuel’s men down.
A gunshot cracked.
Leo jerked.
“Leo!”
He kept running.
Samuel disappeared through a loading door.
Leo reached us and dropped beside Sophie.
“I’m okay.”
Blood marked his shoulder.
“You were shot again!”
“It’s a scratch.”
“You people need a new definition of scratch!”
Even Sophie laughed weakly.
Then she collapsed.
The next ten minutes became lights, sirens, medics, and terror.
Sophie’s heart rhythm had become unstable.
They loaded her into an ambulance.
I climbed inside.
Leo tried to follow.
A medic stopped him.
“You need treatment.”
He ignored the man and looked at me.
“Go.”
I grabbed his hand.
“Don’t disappear.”
His expression softened.
“Not unless you tell me to.”
The ambulance doors closed.
Sophie survived the night.
But Samuel escaped.
And at 4:16 in the morning, Rachel received a message from him.
One sentence.
May you like
LEORA TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME.
NOW I TAKE EVERYTHING FROM HER.
